Loving Memory, Lynn Pilkington - February 7th 1936 to July 11th 2015

Lynn Pilkington - 79, wonderful father, grandfather and friend passed away July 11th 2015 from natural causes. A life long resident of Cache Valley. He was a faithful LDS member and talented brick mason. He loved aviation, fishing and being with his family. He married Carol Chugg, parents of Laura (Pilkington) Medrano and Ed Pilkington. Later divorced, then married Rose Maree Griffin who preceded him in death (2001), they had one son Ryan Pilkington. Lynn is survived by his sister Rose Ann Nielsen - Layton, daughter Laura (Pilkington) Medrano, son Ed Pilkington, wife Shellie (Parker), son Ryan Pilkington wife Linda (Hanna), three grandchildren and five great grand children. Family would like to thank the staff of the Sunshine Terrace for their love and compassion. The family will have a short viewing from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at Allen Mortuaries Wednesday, July 15th followed by a graveside service at the Smithfield Cemetery.

Memories by Ryan Pilkington;

It is with a heavy heart that I post this, but at the same time I am glad that I have this chance to share some memories of my dad and the last few days I got to spend with him as he passed or graduated to the other side.

I would like to share just some thoughts and a few memories here that will paint a picture of the dad I knew. "Pops" came to be his name as he got older, after my mother died he lost his best friend and things changed dramatically for all of the kids. Prior to the loss of mom, dad was a pretty mellow guy and loved spending time on rides around the Hyrum damn. He also loved going to any airport and just hanging out with his passion of flying. He worked for almost 65 years as a bricklayer and worked very hard to put food on the table. He was amazing at it, and very gifted. I spent a lot of times as a child "on the job" watching him lay brick like a master. I was able to get his talent as an artist, and have been a very talented designer. He was a meek man, but yes he had his weaknesses and problems as we all have, his was strong drink and a hot head. However when I was born he was more involved in the church and his callings. He gave up smoking cold turkey and 99% of the time gave up the drinking. I am so grateful that he changed his life around, which made my growing up years amazing to share fond memories of traveling, fishing and flying. We spend many times at lakes, rivers and streams searching for the "Big" one and I always tagged along at all the air shows he took us on. I learned to love flying and even wanted to be a pilot, but that never came true. I remember all the times he wanted us to go to small air fields around Montana, Wyoming and his life long dream of going to Oshkosh, Wi. to a big fly in, in the mid west. We never made it to those places and the airplanes he built never got off the ground, but in our dreams we were always their in spirit. 

"Pops" taught me about hard work, he taught me about treating others with respect. He taught me about listening, as he listened to me and all my life's drama's. Sometimes as it goes there goes a unspoken relationship between a father and son, but I always knew he loved me and did his best with what he had to work with. I got to know my mom more as a best friend as he was out working and when my mother passed away in 2001, I started to do my best to build a relationship with him like my mother. He and I found ourselves talking on the phone for an hour each time about my life and what he was doing. He loved animals, mostly cats and was a gentle man. I am thankful for the time I had to talk over the phone, take him for rides and go swimming in Preston Idaho. 

The decline of dad was a slow and silent killer. For many years he had a Tumor in his brain behind his eye, it grew to the size of a softball later told to us by the doctor. The Family decided to remove it and the future would be a guessing game of how his mind would be after his brain surgery. It was very hard to see him change, and decline to a point that he had to be placed into a Alzheimers facility. He had been in the Sunshine Terrace for 1 year as he rapidly decline and did not eat, and in this past couple weeks he had lost 20 lb. 

It was a blessing to spend time with my Sister and Brother the last 2 days of his life, sharing memories and being with "pops" in his final hours. I am grateful that he was a kind and gentle and loving father and that I had the chance to let him know he was loved and that he can go home and hug mom for me. 

He passed away around 12:04 Saturday July 11th. It was peaceful and reassuring that he is in a better place, safe from pain, safe from the elements that had placed him in. Yes, I will miss him greatly, and I know that some day I will see him and my mom again surrounded in love and family members.

I might post more memories as they come in on this blog. 

I want to thank all those that has been such an amazing blessing to him, from all the family members, friends, and the staff that made sure he was comfortable in his last few hours. 

I can imagine that he will be in heaven flying and soaring above the clouds, and fishing the streams of peace and tranquility until we meet again. 

Love ya' pops!

Life's a real Roller Coaster

Life.... for the past year... yes, it has been on doozy of a roller coaster. I am not even sure where to begin. I will go back to one year ago as best as I can.

Last February, we had the chance to baby sit Robby or Jr. as we call him. This was my first time of officially changing a diaper. I have to admit I did alright. This was a great experience for me and Linda to test the waters so to speak. I was actually very nervous about being alone with an fairly newborn, but with the help of Linda I was able to baby sit Robby and have little anxiety.

Linda had been looking for a new job after working for Winco in the produce section. I kept working hard in building up business and new clients. Some time later Linda got her current job at E-replacement parts.

Since last February, it really has been a blur for me. I have been working very hard in building my company. In fact one time this guy came to Entrepreneur Launch Pad and told me about some networking places to go visit. So for the past year I have been going to many networking groups and meeting new people. At first it was very intimidating, but the more you go the more you become part of family and friends. I started getting some work and recognition at these groups, which has been very rewarding. Currently I am still going to networking groups and have made a goal to attend as many as possible. Linda gave it her all in experimenting with bagels, realizing the hard efforts she has been on hold with this, but it was good to see her working on something she likes to do; bake and/or cook.

With roller coasters, there is ups and then there are downs. As in life there has many ups and many downs as well. I will start by going through all the ups I can remember for 2014. From our Anniversary at Market Grill plus improve to August were we enjoyed going to Preston Idaho and spending time in a motel the size of a matchbox. In August for a get away we headed to Logan to get some R&R and see family. We tried to get a motel, but they were all booked up for raspberry days. So we decided to call Preston hot pots (Riverdale Resort) and they were under new management and said they had new little cabins available. It turned out that for $50 bucks we could have the pool and the cabin. With out delay we headed up. The weather was amazing, I was a little under the weather from stress and ulcers (Hence the get-a-way).

We swam and got into our little, Very little cabin - It had room for a bed, table, and small fridge. No running water, or bathroom; in fact we had to shower in the public showers along with bathroom. When we arrived we had to have them put up curtains so we could change in private. After we swam we went into Richmond for dinner. We decided to go to a small restaurant in Richmond were my parents ate a lot and I remembered the big shrimp. Luckily they still had the big shrimp and it was amazing. When we came back to our small cabin they were showing a outdoor movie by the pool; Linda and I got to sit in the hot pots and watch Short Circuit. The next morning we put responsibility to the wind and drove up to Bear Lake. We had a good time swimming and enjoying the awesome drive and weather in very familiar surroundings. On our way back to Logan we stopped for Lunch and had the best Philly Steak sandwich, and then went to my sisters to pick up Bella, for the road home. It was a great time for us to get out of Salt Lake and relax.

Now for the down in the roller coaster.. My dad (Lynn Pilkington) was found with a benign tumor in his brain the size of a baseball, which later was actually the size of Softball. His brain surgery was a very long and rough battle but he lived. It was then looking at him in this state, that I was scared to loose him. We were left with many uncertainty's about his mental health after the surgery. As the days went and weeks went by, dad's mind went from interesting to worse and worse. He now lives at the Sunshine Terrace in the Alzheimer's unit. He has lost lots of weight and now in a wheel chair. I has been very hard on me and the family to see him go down hill. We try and get up to Logan and see him as much as possible.

It was a very challenging year, and there has been many ups and many downs. Finances have been the hardest to deal with. I even went to work part time where Linda works. My heart was just not in it, I did the best I could, but it was not enough. The tale end of the year it started to pick up again and I started to get some work again. Once I left that part time job, it was scary to think of were the next paycheck was going to come from. I have been working hard a new business model that will allow me to have some steady paychecks, I am hoping to get this up by the end of March or sooner; we are awaiting some news that could speed things up any day now.

Although it has been a very difficult year, we are thankful for amazing friends, ward members, and family. With out them and or knowledge of the gospel, it would have been impossible to make it through. With the ups and downs it is about enjoying and being thankful for the ride.